“(…) the ability to mourn for the loss of other species is, in this sense, an expression of our sense of participation in and responsibility for the whole fabric of life of which we are a part.”(Burton-Christie 2011)

In the Anthropocene, death and loss become pressing environmental concerns. Destruction of ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, war, the Covid-19 pandemic and slow environmental violence evoke feelings of anxiety and grief, manifested in science and popular-scientific communication, art, theory and environmental activism. Recognising commonly unacknowledged grief and asking ourselves what it is that we mourn may help us understand our relations to the environment, and what we choose to value, preserve or revive.

Theoretically grounded in the transdisciplinary field of Queer Death Studies, this talk explores crisis imaginaries linked to more-than-human death, dying and extinction (both material and figurative), as well as questions of eco-grief, which the former are inherently entwined with. This is done through a close dialogue with select contemporary bio-, eco-and media artworks that mobilise and – at times – subvert the notions of and mourning the more-than-human.